Dubai: A manager, who claimed he was training to play a female in a Bollywood film, has been charged with cross-dressing and using mascara at Mall of the Emirates. The Dubai Court of Misdemeanours gave the 45-year-old Indian, an administration manager with a property developer, a six-month suspended jail term and fined him Dh10,000.

The court found him guilty of cross-dressing in public. However the judge suspended his imprisonment because it's his first offence and it believed that he won't repeat the crime. The jail term was suspended for three years within which he should not repeat the crime. The Public Prosecution has appealed the initial verdict and is seeking stiffer punishment.

A defence witness told the court that P.K., who also works in the movie industry, was training for a minor role in a forthcoming film in India which required him to wear a woman's outfit.

Undercover policemen spotted the defendant at Mall of the Emirates. The policemen claimed that his outfit was glittering (like a woman's clothes), and he wore a bra, mascara, women's perfume and a wig.

"I'm not guilty... I was cross-dressed because I was training to perform a woman's role in Indian cinema. I didn't intend to go to the mall but I went there because I received an urgent phone call," P.K. told the public prosecutor.

Police records said that he attempted to bribe the policemen in order to avoid being taken to court.

"I didn't bribe anyone... they misunderstood me because I said I was willing to pay a fine if that would be my punishment," the accused said in his statement to the Public Prosecution.